Ace .... without stirring up cries of "Free Speech, First amendment, censorship, etc etc" ... I'd hate to see something as poisonous as some sort of "New HC" thread now. Our coach id 9-4. Assuming we don't have a group of boosters putting together multimillion dollar packages to entice Nick Saban to the Bronx .... I'd hate to see a dumpster fire of a discussion like that in the beginning of this season.

On my maroon bruised knees I beg you not to facilitate that lunacy now.

-Don't let it poison the recruiting environment. Patriot League staffs will get the dialogue... and use it!-Prospect parents read it

We are trying to increase fundraising ... a new snake pit of careless or even malicious statements and charges won't help Fordham football.

I hate to break this to some but no one on this board is the target market for this communication.

The target market are high school prospects, in their junior and sophomore seasons.

This style totally mimics the current style of reality, behind the scenes productions that players eat up. Think of the wildly successful HBO Hard Knocks series and the surprise Netflix hit “Last Chance U.” Even niche entities like USA Football produced a popular season long series behind the scenes at Long Beach Pol HS. Trust me, it’s everywhere. Kids and player parents can’t get enough of it.

For example…. The Fort Worth Star Telegram produced a season long series following a perennial state champ, Aledo HS. For them it engaged younger viewers with an old, and largely irrelevant, newspaper brand.

For those on the board saying it was less than ‘interesting’ … usually the interesting stuff is the conflict, drama, foul language and coaches losing their minds in anger. No place for that in this initiative.

I bet if they had a creative brief the objective was “Give us a video we can distribute to the widest set of prospects possible” The goal of the video/series is “make Fordham look like a place you can see yourself playing at.”

My son got these from schools coast to coast. It was the easiest way to get a sense of whether he wanted to even visit. There were several that went from ‘not on my list’ to ‘yeah, I’d like visit.’ I asked him to react to it. He said ... "cool"

The elements this Fordham video smartly featured included…-They made Coffey look big by shooting the tall rear of the stands, shooting the field from the visitor side.-The training facilities were well branded and looked normal-guys having more fun than bustin’ their ass-piles of food that seemed enjoyable-a young coach giving positive presentation …. Better than a b buster-the campus looked attractive -the team chemistry looked great

It pays off in other ways…. like offering nice reward to Chase for all he’s given, and his loyalty. The other guys love seeing themselves in these things. This is the first generation that values 'fame' more than they value 'being rich' They'll be stoked by this series.

I found it a healthy break from the ancient photos of past greatness. I has happy not to listen to an out of key version of our fight song that pops up in many of our videos.

* No nostalgia* No resemblance to out of date icons* No straw hats, cheerleaders outfits designed by nuns, elderly fans, polite crowds

The worst part was that the team meeting had to be in an old Keating classroom. I took Business Planning in that theater style room 30 years ago

Welcome to 2017 ... good to see Fordham playing to the present rather than the past.

Regardless, anyone with a functioning brain stem can see that right now this team appears discombobulated from a coaching standpoint. You dont wait it out like Frank to let it hit rock bottom. You start to evaluate right now. Anyone with 5 seconds of experience in sports knows that you start to evaluate the day the coach is hired. And right now there are a lot of red flags. Red flags often mean nothing this early, and things straighten out.....but it doesnt mean that you ignore them. This is a sports discussion board so of course people will be pointing to the obvious red flags.....porous D line, completely inept special teams and a kicker who cant lift it 2 feet off the ground.....the HC hired a new D coordinator this year and to me that is the biggest question mark right now....that hire by the HC...but again, the football and Gridiron folks have a proven track record of knowing what they are doing, so I trust it is in good hands.

I think that is fair. Evaluation from day 1 .... definitely.

I'll never forget the quote from one of the Mara's during Bill Parcell's first year as Head Coach. He let it slip ... "well, what I think is Bill Parcells is a terrific Assistant Coach"

My God ... we sure can jump in the muck and roll around in it faster than any population I've ever seen.

The young man starts his career 9-4 and gets this load of crap dumped on his locker room door!

When did we turn into entitled Crimson Tide fans? When did we get the 'right' to be this way? Of course have the 'right' to be delusional, unreasonable, unrealistic, nit-picky (Rich Rodriguez cheat sheet triggers some!).... even bitter. But it is corrosive. It's not a positive force.

It hurts fundraisingIt hurts recruiting (yes... recruits and their dads read these boards if they are serious about a program)

Here's a hypothetical .... suppose we go a disappointing 7-4 or 6-5. Would you really derail two years of recruiting, lose young players, lose the best assistants, push back program gains ... double down on risk .... by switching horses?

You can't go on to the next game if you don't fix what happened in this one. I would be in very long film sessions today. They need to see what happened and figure out why there was a total breakdown. Don't need yelling and screaming and benchings but they need to get inside the player's heads and figure this out.

I'll stand corrected then.... "burn the tape" is for us fans.

Burn this thread.

Crush Cent Conn if we can.

And if we do... none of that handwringing like some engaged in after we crushed E-City State. The players didn't schedule that game... they just did their job.

Fordham has developed a reputation for offense and head coaching that are a QBs dream. The model for being a great place to transfer in for a talented, yet underutilized, FBS OB is cast.

I think we'll do this over and over until something in the formula changes.

It's important for the Fordham PR 'team' to cast more light on Kevin A to send messages to other QBs in, or entering, D1 .... a great school, great program, great offense, great city, great coaches ... great place to relaunch your college career

I'm encouraged by the DL size we recruited this year, but their not going to help against EWU. Our experienced DLs look "too quick" if you know what I mean

Question for those who really know coaching the trenches. It seems we have gotten bigger on the OL over the past 3-4 years. Can daily practice reps against significantly larger OLs make any meaningful difference for our Dl play on gameday?

It's almost 200 years in the future and there is nothing left of New York. A cycle of natural climate change has brought bitterly cold temperatures to the northern US. NYC was burnt to the ground. Desperate hoards ransacked places like FU for books to use for fuel. Trees in the Botanical Gardens were cut for firewood. A massive fire has brought street level to a primordial state.

Scientists are digging through ruble below the green shoots and brush.

In the area that was The Bronx archeologists see a blinking light in a cavern near the surface. It's a remarkably preserved library carrel. It has hieroglyphics in English carved into the wooded desk saying "Joe Sunfish wuz here, good party", "Rich and 85 say Fire Frank!" ... and many people carved "the food at Fordham suc..(scientist note: unintelligible two letters)".

The blinking light is on an original Apple iMac. Remarkably, through reasons that can't be explained in a dream, the iMac is still running, still powered ... and still has a 200 hundred year old internet connection to a single discussion topic. Nothing else, just one topic. The scientists are very excited because they have not seen any other form of history, documentation, books or records of the period in the early 21st Century. It's a breakthrough. The only recorded proof that Fordham University existed was a years long discussion about someone named McLaughlin. His name was painted on some wood.

That wood was burned for heat like almost every other pieces the poor frozen wretches could find.

The scientists studied for years to learn more about the place. Finally they decided that it most not have been a very important place. God love them, the people seemed to spend weeks repeating the same points, with little opposition to the main arguments.

That's OK madram, you can mention my name. I am a big boy so I can take it.

Franklin is a good recruiter that is his specialty and lets face it without talent you don't win many games, so to his credit he is a good recruiter. On the other hand he is a terrible game day coach and is a rah rah cheerleader, which is well known by those who follow PSU Football. Prior to last year he was on the warm seat and to some even on the hot deal. Many alums and supporters were expecting a turning point in the program and fortunately it happened. A big part of that was Franklin scooping up Moorhead. He needed someone who could call plays. I know folks on the inside at PSU and Moorhead was given full reign of the offense. You can see evidence of this as you see the games. Franklin was ga ga over Moorhead in the Rose Bowl as Moorhead stuck gold on several big plays. His actions were kind of embarrassing for a head coach. Basically Franklin put all his chips in the pot betting on Moorhead and he won, hence the contract extension. If Moorhead did not produce Franklin was gone.

Again, I give Franklin credit for his recruiting and being smart enough that he cant call play and outsourced that to his hot shot OC. On the other hand, he is still a rah-rah incomplete coach, albeit a rich one. As for those saying he would go NFL, please tell me why. Franklin is a PA guys at one of the elite college coaching gigs and gets paid a ton of money. He knew he predecessor did the hard work and attracting kids who could play and get past the Paterno debacle. Everyone knows this was a year rebuild program and he knew the heft lifting was done before him by Reilly. PSU has been a solid program and will always be a solid program and to make up rumors that Frankliin is going to the NFL is idiotic. He will ride it out in Happy valley as long as he can.

Chaka ... credit to you for being fair to Franklin after seeing what he's accomplished. Including the top things a college coach does .... recruit and hire great coordinators and coaches..

They are #6 in the AP preseason poll.

It seems the biggest faults you still lay on him are ...".. he's still a rah-rah, incomplete coach..." If I'm the AD and that's the truth about my young, winning coach, I could live with it. I'll keep winning while he slowly becomes more complete.

Jean's coaching at a large state school that's not the state's flagship school (Cal). And there are other state schools (UCLA, SDSU) with higher profiles. While we at Fordham like to think that state schools dump unlimited funds on their colleges' athletic programs, that's not true. While I think you'll find the taxpayers have built SJSU a decent facility. you're likely to find that the operating budget is no greater than Fordham's, and likely a lot less. Jean's going from a state flagship to a school in the California State U. system -- a cut below the University of California system -- and will face institutional constraints from Day 1. That being said, SJSU is an attractive school in a happening city. He will either tap into local private funds to build the team into a power, or, as someone said above, "take two NCAA appearances" and call his agent.

One can do it. I remember watching Fresno State win the NIT in the Garden years ago. Not sure if that was when Tarkanian coached them, or after, but they clearly had something going, and a HUGE group of fans who'd made the cross-country trek.

Good luck to Jean. He's certainly paid his dues and earned his shot.

Some additional perspective on how strapped the California schools are now. Friends recently took their son to see UC San Diego. The kid has a 34 ACT. He's being heavily recruited by the best medical programs in his interest area (medical robotics). Public and private schools are throwing full ride offers at him across the country.

UCSD is in the top 5 for his study area. Admissions counselor at UCSD said they'd love to have him, but the Cal coffers are so bare that they can't give any aid to top qualified out of state applicants... zero. He'll end up at Vandy, Rice or Alabama.

Junior Ballard, a class of 2018 guard playing for @QpElite (CA), has picked up an offer from Fordham.

Thanks for the updates on these 2 California offers. I guess we are seeing high activity from Ali Ton. I would guess that the half dozen Californians we've offered and focused on are products of his network from his UC Irvine days; and the Turkish pipeline is obvious (and fruitful!)

Is Europe really that much further than California?

Count me in among those agnostic regarding where the athletes come from. I like "made in America" as much as the next guy if it is possible, but we seem to have challenges that are caused but several well documented speed bumps (academic requirements, losing reputation, NYC not for everyone, working conditions, past coaching turmoil).

There was been talk among us that the NYC/CHSAA talent pool is contracting. If it is, consider that the pool of D1 players who can also qualify academically might be contracting even faster. And the kids that are left in NYC are much, much less 'worried' about playing in the south, the Midwest, etc. The perception of "it could be a nightmare" away from the 'safety of NY is much less relevant. The information age hurts St Johns, Fordham in this regard. Even if the pool is not contracting, it sure hurts when more national schools can successfully draw from our reservoir!

Over time I'd be interested in whether a larger sample of foreign players exposes these potential downsides....-Higher attrition due to homesickness or poor cultural fit into the US -Higher levels of poaching of our 'discoveries' by large conferences-Greater outflow of our kids back into their pro leagues. Unlike a Mandell Thomas (american), there are no roster limits to their own country's teams.-Inefficient recruiting expenses. It our cost of recruiting ends up 50% or more than peer programs, that is a budget risk

Until any or all of those become problems, we should stop banging our heads against the "domestic only" wall, or the "NYC focused team" wall.

Watching Chuba workout makes me think his body will look very different over the next few years. His frame appears to be able to carry more muscle without compromising his quickness and athleticism. He's a player I really look forward to watching.